


Things That Never Happened: Previously Known

by wheel_pen



Series: Daisy [48]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Naughtiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 23:10:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU of the Daisy series. Stefan and Damon are surprised to find Daisy—their old acquaintance of mysterious supernatural origin—already living in Mystic Falls when they arrive. “Sometimes when I talk to you, I begin to feel like a pawn on the chessboard of life.” This story is unfinished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things That Never Happened: Previously Known

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Daisy is my original character. There is something special about her.
> 
> 2\. This series begins with the first season of the TV show and completely diverges about halfway through the first season. Facts revealed later on the show might not make it into this series.
> 
> 3\. Underage warning: This series may contain human or human-like teenagers, in high school, in sexual situations.
> 
> 4\. The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate being able to play in this universe.

Stefan was standing in the town archives, eyes scanning the shelves of land record collections, when suddenly there was a voice behind him.

“Well as I live and breathe,” it said sardonically, and he turned to see a dark-skinned young woman sitting at a nearby table. He hadn’t seen her when he walked in, but somehow that didn’t surprise him.

He smiled and walked closer, leaning over the table before greeting her in a slightly questioning tone. “Daisy?” He wasn’t entirely certain what name she was using these days.

“Daisy Fortescue,” she replied with a smirk.

“Fortescue,” he repeated, committing it to memory.

“There’s a study room off to the side,” she suggested quickly. “We can talk without bothering anyone else.”

Or being overheard by anyone else, Stefan noted. He nodded and Daisy started to gather up her things. “Could you put these away for me?” she asked, and he took her stack of record books and placed them on the library cart, noting the titles.

“Census records and slave schedules?” he queried as they headed for the study room. He carried Daisy’s bookbag for her; by no means did she need his assistance, but that was how he’d been raised, and he didn’t feel self-conscious acting on those impulses around her.

“I’m doing a project for school on slave ownership in the area,” she replied nonchalantly.

“School hasn’t started yet,” he pointed out, setting her bag on the table in the small study room.

“I’m an overachiever,” Daisy claimed, removing some notebooks from her bag and spreading them across the table to make a more realistic scene should anyone look in on them—the librarians were vigilant about making sure that the study rooms were not being used inappropriately.

Stefan shut the door tightly and sat down across from Daisy at the table. Neither of them was really surprised to see the other. “What are you doing here, Daisy?” Stefan asked curiously.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Daisy began, “but I realized when I started doing research that this is your hometown. You never mentioned the name before.” She sounded thoughtful. “Anyway, I had a dream about Mystic Falls,” she went on. “And I usually listen to dreams like that.”

“You’ve been going to school?” he pressed leadingly.

“For about a year,” Daisy confirmed. “I moved here from Tampa with my mom and grandma.” Stefan noted the cover story and wondered idly about these alleged relatives. “It’s a nice town, though the lingering pockets of magic are a little distracting. Normally I wouldn’t have stayed, but—“

“You had a dream,” Stefan supplied, and Daisy smiled in her maddening, Cheshire Cat way. Past experience had led Stefan to feel that Daisy was a positive acquaintance, if not exactly a friend. Observation, not interference, seemed to be her preferred stance, which Stefan sometimes couldn’t stomach. She followed her own agenda; but it seemed like her goals were usually not in opposition to his.

“Are you here to check on things?” Daisy queried of him. “Make sure the boarding house is still standing?” The contrary answer skittered across Stefan’s face; he wasn’t really trying to hide it. “No, this visit is different,” she surmised, intrigued. “How so?”

He briefly debated whether to tell her. But she would learn his goal right away, and there was no point in concealing the reason; maybe she could even help him somehow. “There’s this girl,” he began, feeling suddenly awkward, like the teenager he no longer really was. Daisy’s eyebrow raised. “Elena Gilbert.”

As he said her name Daisy’s expression changed—surprise, concentration, perhaps a bit of understanding. “You’ve been here for a while, haven’t you?” she realized. “Skulking in the shadows. Since spring. I wondered.”

“I don’t—skulk,” Stefan corrected, with mild offense. “I was just—watching.”

Daisy smiled tolerantly. “So you’ve been _watching_ Elena Gilbert. Why?”

“You’re friends with her?” He knew this, of course, since he’d been _watching_ Elena all summer. “Do you think there’s anything… special about her?”

Daisy readily gave this some thought. “She was the first person to welcome me to school, even though we didn’t become friends until later,” she noted. “I took this as a sign. But her friend Bonnie was of more immediate interest to me.”

Stefan blinked in surprise. “Bonnie?”

“She’s a witch,” Daisy told him, murmuring the last word. His eyes widened as he considered this—witches returning to Mystic Falls? He would have to tread carefully around Bonnie, in case she was able to sense something _off_ about him. She was close friends with Elena and could be a strong influence on her. “Nascent,” Daisy went on, “but her grandmother Sheila is accomplished. I avoid her myself.” He nodded thoughtfully, appreciating the warning. “What do _you_ find special about Elena?”

It was, in a sense, a simple question to answer. It wasn’t that he had trouble putting his reason into words—his hesitancy was more about what might happen when he finally said those words aloud to someone else. Daisy’s eyebrow raised again when he paused.

Stefan leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. “Elena looks exactly like Katherine.”

Daisy’s other eyebrow went up as her eyes widened. Then they narrowed as she frowned. Then they unfocused as she thought to herself.

“ _Exactly_?” she finally questioned skeptically. “Genetics doesn’t really work that way.”

“ _Exactly_ ,” Stefan confirmed. He’d studied them both long enough to be sure. “Come by the house sometime, I’ll show you a picture of Katherine.”

Daisy thought about this some more, and Stefan stayed quiet. _Why_ the resemblance was so strong—identical, in fact—was the question he couldn’t yet answer, and he knew if Daisy was intrigued by this she’d investigate it as well. But would she tell him what she found? “I did not see that coming,” Daisy admitted.

Stefan didn’t know exactly what Daisy was—she wasn’t a vampire or a witch—but there was some hint that she had predictive powers. She was good at picking up a few bucks from the lottery, anyway. “I spotted her a few months ago when I came back to town to check on things,” he went on, “and then I spent a lot of time trying to make sure she _wasn’t_ Katherine.”

“Skulking,” Daisy teased.

“And now that I’m sure she’s human,” he finished, “I want to get to know her.”

Daisy blinked at him. “You’re enrolling in school,” she surmised, sounding as though she disapproved. For the first time a tiny bit of doubt appeared in his mind. “Are you insane?” she asked bluntly.

“I _know_ the risks,” he insisted. “I have to be careful to act like a normal teenager. Zach—at the boarding house—he keeps saying people haven’t forgotten the past, that they don’t think it’s all superstition—“

“Forget that,” Daisy dismissed. “Your plan is to pop up in all Elena’s classes, sweep her off her feet, and—then what? What are you going to talk about? She likes Boy Next Door, not Mysterious Loner Guy. She wants someone whose grandma is going to make her an ugly sweater for Christmas. And she’s _smart_ ,” Daisy added, as Stefan squirmed uncomfortably. “She’s going to figure out what you are. And she’s not going to like being a replacement for your dead ex.”

“That’s _not_ how it is,” Stefan snapped. He never snapped, and he tried to calm himself. “I just want to get to know her. We don’t have to—plan a wedding.”

Daisy heaved a sigh. “Oh Stefan. But you will be.”

“What?” he asked in confusion.

“Once you’re able to be honest with her, you two will be very compatible,” Daisy judged. “ _If_ you get that far, she really dislikes secrets and deception.”

Stefan tried to take heart from Daisy’s first statement, and tucked the second away for later brooding. “What’s she like?” he probed, trying not to sound too eager.

Daisy smirked but humored him. “Smart, energetic, compassionate, loyal,” she listed. “But also somewhat naïve. And her view of the world is more black-and-white than grey.” Stefan thought he could handle that. “You know her parents were killed in a car accident in May,” Daisy went on, not really asking. Stefan nodded soberly. “She broke up with her boyfriend shortly after—Matt. Boy next door,” she added dryly. “He pines over her. Decent guy. On the surface you two have a lot in common.” Stefan decided not to look too deeply into that comment.

“You think she’ll be receptive?” he questioned.

“I think you can pull it off,” Daisy decided, “at least up to a certain point. Are you any better at lying since I last met you?”

“I doubt it,” Stefan admitted, and she rolled her eyes.

“Well, it should be fun to watch, anyway,” she concluded, and Stefan wasn’t so sure that was a good thing. “It would seem I’m to play some part in all this,” she mused. “Otherwise why would I be drawn here?”

That question was too metaphysical for Stefan. “Should we know each other?” he wanted to know.

Daisy shook her head. “Awkward. I would get too many questions. Plus I don’t want to be collateral damage if you screw up.” Now Stefan rolled his eyes. “Speaking of collateral damage,” she went on casually, “what are you going to do about Damon?”

Stefan blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

Daisy blinked at _him_. “You haven’t considered him?” she asked slowly, with mounting alarm.

“I haven’t seen him in almost fifteen years—“

“Stefan.” Daisy’s voice was steel. “There is, in this town right now, a young woman _who looks exactly like Katherine_. Do you seriously think Damon will _not_ show up and wreak havoc?”

Okay, Stefan hadn’t really thought of that. Though when Daisy put it _that_ way, it sounded so _obvious_. “Um,” was the best he could do, desperately searching for a subconscious reason he might have listened to without realizing it.

Daisy sat back in her chair and regarded him with an expression Stefan couldn’t interpret, but felt judged by. “You’re already in love with her,” she finally stated. “You’ve fallen in love with the person you’ve been secretly watching for months, and it’s driven rational thought from your mind. You know, even among vampires that’s considered poor form.”

Stefan sighed helplessly; what else was he supposed to do? “Once I saw her, I couldn’t leave,” he admitted.

“That’s understandable,” Daisy agreed. “Still animal-only?” Stefan nodded immediately. “So, your psychotic brother has a huge advantage over you strategically, and between being in love with Elena and your desire to fit in as a human, you have everything to lose. And no plan?” she checked hopefully. “You don’t have to tell me what it is,” she added, “but it would be nice to know you _had_ one.”

“Sorry, no,” Stefan reiterated.

“Interesting,” Daisy commented thoughtfully. “I expect something new will present itself.”

Stefan didn’t know quite what she meant by that but assumed she wouldn’t explain further. “I guess it’s not too late to stop…” he ventured slowly. Emotionally it was, but he’d had a lot of experience brooding and torturing himself.

“No, I think you’re supposed to be here,” Daisy told him. “I think you ought to stay and continue with your plan. Damon will show up sooner or later, and I think Elena will have a worse time of it if you’re not here. You might want to be careful with the chair,” she added, and Stefan released his damaging grip on the edge of his seat, not realizing he’d clamped it as he began imagining Damon’s interactions with Elena.

“If he hurts her—“ he said in a growl that surprised him.

Nothing about this situation seemed to surprise Daisy any longer. “I don’t think he will, not seriously,” she judged. “He’ll probably fall for her, too, and it will devolve into trying to undercut each other for her affections.” Daisy sounded like she suddenly found this very dull, but Stefan wasn’t insulted; he didn’t like the idea of history repeating itself either. “On the other hand,” Daisy went on, “I think there’s more going on here than just the supernatural love triangle.”

“What more?” Stefan asked curiously.

Daisy seemed very pensive. “There’s the witches, and some other people in town who seem a bit odd though I can’t put my finger on why,” she mused. “And the leftover magical pockets—plus the comet is returning soon, that’s surely no coincidence—“

Stefan freely admitted he had no idea what she was talking about. “Do you believe the comet is magical?” he asked. He wasn’t of that persuasion himself, but he’d grown up in a more rational age from Daisy, who had always struck him as rather old, though as usual she was coy about details.

“A comet is a frozen ball of gas and dust trapped by gravity into orbiting through the solar system,” Daisy told him matter-of-factly. “But when others _believe_ it creates magic— _that’s_ what creates magic.”

“The power of suggestion?”

“No, actual magic,” Daisy corrected, “at least according to humanity’s present understanding. But it comes from the humans themselves, not the comet.”

Stefan was quiet for a long moment. “Sometimes when I talk to you, I begin to feel like a pawn on the chessboard of life,” he finally said sardonically.

“An accurate observation,” she replied, and he wasn’t sure if she was serious or joking, and if so, about which part. Then she lightened up a bit. “Perhaps I will enjoy seeing Damon again,” she wondered. “And you, too, of course, but—“

Stefan shook his head. “No, no, I understand,” he assured her. “Well, actually I don’t,” he corrected. “I don’t know how you can stand him, he’s so obnoxious and he’s done unconscionable things—“

“ _You_ haven’t killed him yet, have you?” Daisy observed dryly. Stefan was not sure that remark was entirely fair—it was no small task, psychologically, to kill one’s own brother. “Besides, I like bad boys,” she added with a naughty grin that made Stefan slightly queasy. “We’ll see what happens,” she concluded with a shrug. “I admit, I’ve grown fond of some people here…”

“Hopefully, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other,” Stefan suggested carefully. If he was able to get into Elena’s good graces, anyway.

“Good luck in high school,” she told him with a smirk, and somehow he realized this was the end of meaningful conversation. “Sadly, the history teacher is an a-s.”

“I’ll watch out,” Stefan promised. He rose and turned towards the door, debating on saying something else. “It’s good to see you again, Daisy,” he finally told her.

“Hmmm,” she responded cryptically

**

A party of drunken teenagers in the woods at night? Welcome to the buffet!

He’d eaten well the last couple days, though, so he wasn’t sure he’d really be able to appreciate it. But he got the feeling this crowd partied out here at the lake a lot, so he was confident there would be future opportunities for him to lurk in the trees and compare humans to campfire beans or s’mores.

A girl wandered off from the rest, engaged in arguments with two different guys who apparently both liked her. The men of Mystic Falls had not decreased their testosterone levels in the last century and a half, apparently. Once she’d shoved them both aside she proceeded deeper into the woods on her own—not very bright, really, but he could help raise the average intelligence of the local gene pool easily. A little fog, a few scary birds, she tried to run but alas, he was faster and stronger. It _almost_ wasn’t even fun.

The alcohol in her blood gave it a slightly spiky aftertaste, which he enjoyed but couldn’t spend _too_ long savoring. No doubt one or both of those bone-headed boys would be back to look for her soon and—

He heard a noise in the woods, the sound of someone walking, but not from the direction of the party. He pulled away from his meal, more or less finished anyway, and tried to locate the new victim—because that’s what they were likely to become. After a moment he grinned, recognizing the scent, and zipped into the shadows behind her.

He snapped a few twigs, rattled a few branches, then finally flew at her, pinning her to a tree. She squealed in surprise—then gave him a peeved look and said, “Oh, for goodness sake,” crossly.

Damon laughed. “Bit dangerous to go walking in the woods by yourself at night,” he teased. “That rabid mountain lion might get you.”

“The mountain lion story might have worked fifty years ago,” Daisy pointed out, still irritated by his theatrics. “But modern forensics is much more sophisticated.”

Damon rolled his eyes. “Please, like this cowtown has the resources to go all _CSI_ on me.” He looked momentarily doubtful, however, and that was all Daisy really wanted.

She smiled and slid her arms around his neck. “We should go. Someone’s coming.”

Damon wasn’t sure how _she_ knew that when _he_ didn’t hear a thing, but he was done here anyway. Putting his arms around her waist he zipped them both to the far edge of the forest, where the moonlight competed with the garish floodlights of an all-night truck stop. His face had lost its vampiric mask and Daisy reached up to touch his cheek. “You are a handsome devil,” she told him, not meaning it entirely as a metaphor.

Damon appreciated the compliment. They weren’t really difficult for him to obtain, but they meant more coming from Daisy than from the usual tipsy co-ed he ‘socialized’ with. “I am really torn between asking what the h—l you’re doing here,” he admitted, “and just taking you straight back to my hotel.”

“No-tell over the county line?” Daisy guessed. “I’ll stick with the interrogation.”

Damon made a noise of disappointment. “It’s not so bad. I compelled the manager to have my room professionally cleaned first, and I rented out all the rooms around it so I could entertain in private.”

“That’s quite a preparation,” Daisy observed with a smirk.

“I know how picky you are.”

“Oh, you did all that for _me_?”

“I spotted you,” Damon assured her, murmuring in her ear. “Hanging out with _Elena_.” He said the name with great significance.

“Me, Stefan, Elena,” Daisy listed. “So many people to stalk, so little time.”

Damon pulled back to look at her thoughtfully. “You could be very useful to me here,” he noted.

“How lucky for me.”

“But I don’t entirely trust you,” he admitted baldly. “You always have your own opinions.”

“I know how that annoys you.”

“You’ve already spoken to Stefan?” Daisy indicated yes. “Why does Elena look like Katherine?”

“There are a few possibilities, none well-documented,” Daisy hedged. “I’m still looking into it.”

“But you didn’t _know_ she looked like Katherine until Stefan told you,” Damon surmised. “So why are you here? You’ve been here at least a year. I checked,” he added at her look.

“It seemed like a happening place,” she told him with a smirk. “And I’m an early adopter.”

He frowned, not appreciating her attempt at levity. “Are you being coy?” he demanded.

“Always,” she chuckled. “No, really, I just felt I ought to come here. Now I see why. This place is becoming a hotbed of the supernatural.”

“Yeah, the comet’s coming back soon,” Damon agreed without thinking, then tried to look like he’d _meant_ to reveal that.

“The last time the comet appeared was 1864,” Daisy noted thoughtfully. “About the time you and Stefan were turned. Feeling nostalgic? Or does the comet signify—“

Damon stopped her from talking by kissing her, a not-unpleasant strategy for both of them. “How about that hotel?” he suggested, and Daisy offered no objection.

**

“You dressed,” Damon noted with disappointment, reentering the hotel room.

“I’d hardly call this _dressed_ ,” Daisy countered, rolling her eyes and sitting up on the bed. She was wearing underwear and one of Damon’s ridiculously expensive shirts from the closet, and she noted the appreciative gleam in his eye as he watched her walk over to the table where he’d put a plastic bag. “Caesar salad and spaghetti, nice,” she approved, taking the food out.

“I can’t believe with all your superpowers you still have to _eat_ ,” he scoffed, flopping down on the bed to watch her.

“Well, we all have our limitations,” she replied patronizingly.

“So when I was at the Grill picking up your food,” Damon began idly after a moment, “I saw this drunk blond chick.” Daisy gave him a questioning look. “The one who pals around with Elena.”

“Oh, Caroline Forbes,” Daisy supplied. “Her mom is the sheriff. By the way.” Damon narrowed his eyes as his plan was complicated. “But they don’t get along very well.” Well, maybe it would still be okay, then.

“Does she have a boyfriend?” he asked Daisy. “Her pathetic whining indicated not, though I find that odd as she seems hot and willing.”

Daisy rolled her eyes at his crude assessment, however accurate it might be. “Well, she’s not easy enough to be the town skank,” she replied, equally frank. “She wants to be part of a _couple_. But most of the guys around here have known her since first grade and find her…”

“Needy and insecure?” Damon guessed.

“High maintenance,” Daisy corrected, which she felt had a broader definition. “The teenage boys here aren’t really built for high maintenance girls. Maturity gap. And besides,” she added matter-of-factly, “she always goes for the wrong guys.”

“I’m thinking of prolonging that trend,” Damon informed her. “I need an _in_ with Elena’s crowd.”

“You’re gonna date _Caroline_?” Daisy scoffed.

“I knew you’d be jealous,” Damon replied arrogantly, “but I need someone malleable to do my bidding, and you’re too strong-willed.”

“Well thank goodness for that,” Daisy remarked dryly. “But really—aren’t you a little old for Caroline? The age of consent in Virginia is eighteen, which she isn’t yet, and you’re going around as what, twenty-six?”

“Twenty-two,” Damon corrected, his vanity wounded.

“Still,” Daisy shrugged, “Sexy Older Guy becomes Creepy Older Guy so easily these days.”

Damon had put a lot of thought into this plan (on the walk back from the Grill) and he wasn’t going to let it be sidetracked by Daisy’s smug objections. “Don’t get spaghetti sauce on my shirt,” he ordered peevishly. “I’m going to be the brother of highly-respected, normal Stefan,” he insisted. “A known quantity. Not an Internet stalker.”

“Does Stefan know you’re in town yet?”

“He may, at this point, suspect,” Damon admitted, and Daisy rolled her eyes.

“I really don’t understand why the two of you can’t put aside your problems for once and work together,” she said.

“Spoken like an only child,” Damon cracked.

“You’ve got a problem here that you’re _both_ interested in, it would be in your best interests to—“ Damon was very certain he hadn’t let any unintended emotions leak across his face. But Daisy paused anyway as she looked at him. “It’s not just Elena that drew you back here,” she said suddenly.

“Checkin’ on the homestead,” he insisted blandly. He had no intention of taking the slippery Daisy into his confidence, no matter how useful she might have proven. She might also easily sabotage things, if she felt that was better from _her_ point of view.

“It has something to do with the comet,” Daisy decided. When a mystery intrigued her she was like a terrier who’d just caught the scent of a fox. Unfortunately for Damon, who rolled his eyes upwards as though the popcorn ceiling were fascinating to him. “Eighteen sixty-four. You’re dealing with vampires and witches,” she summarized.

“Your food’s getting cold,” he reminded her.

This was ignored. “A comet is just the type of astronomical event a witch would use to power a spell,” Daisy went on thoughtfully. “A _big_ spell, not just a couple of daylight rings.”

“There’s no need to be insulting,” Damon pointed out. He swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I should take you home now.”

Daisy took the hint rather than pushing him. “I’ll figure it out eventually,” she pointed out, which was probably true, but she got up from the table and nonchalantly shed the shirt as she walked over to her pile of clothes. “You’re _really_ going to hook up with Caroline?” she asked, immodestly starting with her socks.

“That’s the plan,” Damon confirmed, watching her boldly.

“Kind of gross, being with both of us at the same time,” Daisy judged. “Guess we won’t be doing this again for a while.”

Damon zipped over to her side, not unexpectedly. “Maybe you could stay a little longer, then,” he suggested, “and I’ll buy you some dessert.”

**

_Daisy… help me… Daisy…_ Damon lay on the floor of the cell in the basement, too weak to even move into a more comfortable position, projecting his plea with all the concentration he could muster. If he made it out of here with his sanity intact he would have plenty of time to stoke his frustrated rage about Stefan—but that would have to be later.

The spark of hope when he felt Daisy’s mental presence in return was quickly smothered. _I warned you not to hurt Caroline_ , she replied coldly. _She’s my friend._

Damon felt it was unfair to expect him to engage in coherent debate about this point right now. _Stefan… vervain… starving… help me…_ he moaned instead.

Daisy was not moved by pity, however. Time had given her a cold heart, a long view of events, and her own agenda to pursue. Which did not necessarily include him. _You deserve it_ , she rejoined. _You’ll survive._ Half insane from boredom and thirst, immobile and powerless, in the family crypt for fifty years, according to Stefan’s plan—but yes, not technically non-existent.

“Daisy,” he moaned forcefully, aloud this time, desperation driving him. Surely this wasn’t what happened next. Not when he’d hoped and planned for so long—

_Don’t waste your meager resources calling for_ me, Daisy ordered, breaking the connection definitively.

For a moment he was lost. But something about her tone suggested—Maybe there was someone else he could call, someone whose connection was far more tenuous than Daisy’s, but who was also far more malleable.

_Caroline… help me… Caroline…_

**

Daisy was using approximately one percent of her brain to do her geometry homework and considerably more to replay the events of the most memorable fund-raising car wash in school history, at least in her opinion. Bonnie had used her witch powers to set a car on fire, accidentally—that was the incident most people noticed, without realizing Bonnie’s part in it of course. But then curiously, the key players started disappearing from the scene—Caroline, Elena, Stefan. Elena had driven off with the secretive, smarmy newsman after speaking to the man who had recognized Stefan from a 1950s visit—not a good sign for Stefan’s charade of being human. For the other two, Daisy had speculations about their whereabouts, but little evidence.

Her cell phone rang, Stefan’s name on the screen. “Hello?”

“ _Is Damon with you?_ ” His voice was tight with anger—fury, really—to a degree she didn’t associate with Stefan.

“No,” she answered, abandoning her schoolwork in favor of a greater awareness of the changing situation. “He escaped?”

“ _I don’t know how_.” Stefan sounded slightly distracted; there were rummaging noises in the background. “ _He couldn’t have gotten out on his own, and Zach wouldn’t—Did you help him_?” His voice sharpened and clarified like a diamond.

“No,” Daisy repeated simply. “What are you going to do?”

The only thing he could do. No matter how much he would hate himself for it. “ _Find him. Stop him._ ” Daisy understood the euphemism. “ _He’s out of control, dangerous_ —“ Nothing new there. “ _He killed Zach_ —“

Stefan’s voice hitched slightly, unexpectedly. “Oh, that’s too bad,” Daisy said politely. “Do you have other relatives?” Sometimes Stefan got attached.

But that wasn’t the point. “ _Where would he go_?”

“You took his ring?” Daisy checked. Stefan indicated yes. It was dark now, though. “He’ll need to eat, several people but in private. He can’t go far until he does so. I would check the neighbors—“ Stefan drew a sharp intake of breath, not having imagined the danger to the families who lived around them. “—and the woods for hikers or partiers. Once he eats he’ll be more mobile, so—“

Stefan hung up on her, having heard all he needed to. Daisy didn’t take offense. She set the phone down and gazed thoughtfully out the window at nothing. That accounted for Stefan and Caroline, then. But Elena was no passive viewer of the drama around her—she would yet have a part to play in the evening’s events, Daisy felt. Though exactly what she couldn’t be sure.

Standing, Daisy put on a jacket and grabbed her purse. She felt the need to check on all the people of interest in this story.


End file.
